He was born in 1948 in Moscow to a family, which observed Jewish traditions. In 1956 his father, being on a business-trip to Denmark, decided not to come back to the USSR, and later moved to Israel. He was tried “in absentia” and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. Mark graduated from the Moscow Medical Dental Institute in 1970 (on his application forms he indicated that his father died) and in 1971 he applied for the exit visa to go to Israel, but was refused. In 1972 he was arrested and sentenced to 1 year of imprisonment for the evasion of military reserve training, but was pardoned in the amnesty honoring the 50-th anniversary of the creation of the USSR. In 1974 he was arrested again, this time for the participation in a demonstration of refuseniks, and sentenced to 5 years exile. He was released in 1979. In 1985, as a result of a deal between M. Gorbachev and F. Mitterand, he received permission to go, and together with his mother arrived in Israel.
From the interview given to Aba Taratuta in 2003.
